Carson Makes Ultimatum on Rumored Cetera Deal

There’s been plenty of speculation that Cetera Financial Group may sell itself to LPL Financial, and well-known advisor Ron Carson is threatening to leave Cetera if such a deal happens.

“Carson Group will not remain with Cetera if it is acquired by an LPL-owned entity,” Carson wrote in a memo to his 48 partner firms on Wednesday, according to InvestmentNews.

Carson told the publication in a phone interview that his memo is a way of telling partner firms that Carson Group is working on “contingency plans.”

“Cetera’s board always has to do what’s best for their community, and part of that would be evaluating all their options,” he’s quoted saying. “I want all of our partners to know we evaluate all of that all the time, and we always have a what-if scenario.”

Carson is very familiar with LPL: He was with the company for 28 years before switching to Cetera 14 months ago.

“From what I’m hearing form inside LPL, the service has declined considerably,” the advisor tells InvestmentNews. “I can’t even imagine them to have the bandwidth to do something like this.”

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